Stuck In Love (And A Vending Machine)
by NotAGuestAnymore
Summary: "You look a little stuck." Percy almost groans. It's just his luck, really. First he gets his hand stuck in a godforsaken vending machine, and then the first person to find him is the love of his life./ In which Percy has crush and maybe Annabeth does too. (and Jason is there in spirit. Mainly because he's now dead to Percy.)/ Happy Valentines Day :)


**AN: I got this prompt ****_ages_**** ago from meg (jasongraceless), but I've only got round to fulfilling it now- in time for Valentine's Day!**

**Anyways, I'd like to dedicate this to all of my wonderful friends from PJOwriters (check us out on tumblr): Bella, Casey, Meg, Rachel and Sarah because I love them very much.**

**(this is actually on time unlike last year's valentines day fic whoops)**

**(it's also in a weird third person present tense)**

**AND MASSIVE THANK YOU to bellalou5, who looked this through for me and made it readable. (i appreciate you very much bella)**

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"You look a little stuck."

Percy almost groans. It's just his luck**,** really. First he gets his hand stuck in a godforsaken vending machine, and then the first person to find him is the love of his life.

Okay so strictly speaking she's not _technically_ the love of his life.

Well she is. But she's not _aware_ that she is.

Percy's aware that that sounds incredibly creepy and in most situations he would probably be put under a restraining order, but he can't help that he fell in love with someone who doesn't even know he exists.

Correction: She does know him now. As the boy she caught with his hand up the vending machine.

It's not exactly an improvement.

Percy looks up at her and sees she's smiling at him. _Him._ Annabeth is smiling at him. He almost dies on the spot because oh my god Annabeth Chase—the most perfect human to ever walk the halls of Goode High—is smiling a beautifully dimpled, perfectly formed smile and it's directed at _him._

Suddenly he's very conscious of the fact his face is half-smushed against the glass door of the vending machine and he probably looks like a moron. Because how the hell can anyone ever pull off attractive looking like _that_?

He looks back at Annabeth and disregards his previous statement. She could. She could do anything.

Clearly, Percy's a tad more than mildly infatuated.

Annabeth raises her eyebrows and waves her hand in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Percy?"

Percy blinks, and against his will, a small embarrassing squeak emits from his throat because _holy crap she knows his name._

"Y-you know my name?" He stutters.

Annabeth runs her hand through her blonde curls. "Well_ yeah_. You know we're in homeroom together right? Have been for the past three years?"

Percy sure as hell knows Annabeth is in his homeroom. She's the reason he doesn't spend homeroom catching up on sleep. He just didn't realize she knew. He's not about to face further mortification and admit this though, so he just settles for a shrug.

Annabeth seems to put this down as just general male obtuseness and accepts the answer. "So, is there a reason why you're groping a vending machine? Or are you just practicing your moves for someone else later?"

Percy's face grows hot. "What? I don't-" He splutters, "I'm not- _what?_" He looks at her, utterly mortified at her insinuation, and realizes she's smirking at him.

"Relax." She laughs, leaning on the wall next to him, "Why are you so on edge?"

Percy doesn't point out that it's because she's talking to him. Instead, he says, "Well you know, my arm is kind of up a vending machine and if my elbow stays like this any longer _it's going to snap_. But obviously that's nothing to set me on edge."

Annabeth takes his sarcasm as a challenge. "And whose fault it that exactly?"

"Jason." he grumbles darkly.

"What did Grace do now?" Annabeth sighs.

Percy almost chokes because she's on a last name basis with the blonde boy. "You're friends with him?"

She nods. "He's in a couple of my honours classes. We have study dates together." She looks at him. "He's your friend too, right?"

"He was." Percy replies, narrowing his eyes. "Now he's dead to me." _That little girl-stealing dweeb_ he adds on silently.

Annabeth laughs easily. "Well, he talks about you a lot."

Percy changes his mind. Jason's not dead to him after all. He's his mate. His bro.

"What does he say?" he asks, intrigued.

"He's usually just going on about how clumsy you are." Annabeth looks at Percy's current predicament. "I see he's not wrong."

No, Jason's dead to him. "I wouldn't put this one down to clumsiness." He tells her, "More like lack of foresight."

She smirks. "Yeah, clumsy was that time you tripped over a pencil and managed to break your leg and get a concussion. What excuse did you make up again?" In a low dopey voice, she says, "Oh I was attacked by a dog from hell."

Percy widens his eyes because no one—especially not her—is meant to know about the pencil incident. "How do you know about that?" A horrifying thought strikes him. "Were you _there_?"

Annabeth sighs, mock regretfully. "I wish. Jason told me all about it."

Jason's really, _really _dead to him.

"I hate him." Percy tells her.

Annabeth laughs, because obviously he's kidding—him and Jason are practically attached at the hip—and leans down to him, as if she's about to tell him a secret.

"I think he's trying to set us up." She grins at him.

Percy chokes on his spit. Coughing, he gasps out "_What?_" Because honestly, he expected Jason's wingman techniques to be much smoother than this.

Annabeth laughs at his reaction, and as she slides down against the vending machine next to him, he notices that she's in a particularly good mood today. "When I said he talks about you a lot, I meant a lot. Like, all the time." She tells him.

"_All the time?_" Percy asks weakly, realizing that Annabeth probably knows about every even mildly embarrassing thing that has ever happened to him since the first grade.

She nods. "At first I thought _he_ had a crush on you," Annabeth confides, and Percy shudders at the thought, considers it seriously, (because after all he does have a thing for blondes) and shakes his head. Annabeth continues, "But then I realized he only ever talked about you to me, so it was probably more for my benefit."

Percy's lost for words. He considers being smooth and asking her if Jason's efforts worked, and then decides he's not ready to flirt with Annabeth yet. (Ever.)

She shrugs. "It didn't really make much of a difference though."

Percy's getting a sinking sort of feeling in his stomach, but Annabeth's still smiling at him, so he's not sure how he should feel.

Annabeth changes the subject. "How was this," she gestures at his situation, "Jason's fault again?"

"He's a jealous piece of crap."

Annabeth raises an eyebrow in understanding. "Something to do with Piper then?"

He smirks. "Obviously. We were in the hallway when Piper came up to me and Jason-"

"Jason and I." Annabeth corrects, and Percy is torn between finding it annoying or endearing.

He carries on, "And instead of talking to Jason, she asked me about this rumour going around that I could drink a bottle of water in five seconds."

"Can you?" Annabeth asks interestedly.

He flashes her a rather excessively proud smile for such a useless talent. "Of course. Anyways," He continues, "Piper asked me to show her, and when I took out my bottle Jason snatched it and claimed he could do it in _four _seconds," Percy inserts an eye roll for effect, "and he ended up choking on his own ego."

Annabeth laughs, and Percy feels pleased with himself for his clearly excellent story telling skills.

"I understand the jealous part," She informs him, "but why is he a piece of crap?"

"Well, to be fair, he's always a piece of crap."

Annabeth smiles. "Why in this _particular_ instance?"

"Well, it was all cushy for _him_ in the end. Piper squeezed his pinkies to stop the coughing and they basically ended up holding hands. _I_, on the other hand," He said overdramatically, "no longer had any water."

"And so you decided to mug the vending machine." She says, still smiling. "And how's the life of crime working out for you now, huh Percy? Mushed against a glass screen on the ground."

"Shut up." Percy grumbles, trying to retain as much of his dignity as he could while blushing and having his arm jammed up a vending machine. "Besides," he tells her, "I wasn't trying to steal it. I put a dollar in and the infernal thing got stuck midway through giving me the bottle so I tried to get it out, uh, _manually_."

"And how did that work out for you?"

Percy lets out a doleful sigh.

Annabeth rolls her eyes at the melodrama. "You do realize you could just put another dollar in and it'll open again, right?" she asks, her smile teasing.

"I don't have any money on me at the moment," Percy tells her.

Annabeth nods and takes out her purse; she is unzipping it when she suddenly stops. "Wait. I'm giving you a whole dollar." She points out. "What's my reimbursement?"

Percy blinks at her. "I'll give you a dollar at the end of the day."

Annabeth shakes her head, and he notices the corners of her mouth turning up. "I charge interest."

"But it's within the same day!" He protests.

Annabeth shrugs.

"Two dollars?" Percy offers.

"More." Annabeth says. "This isn't just a dollar, you know, I'm saving you eternal embarrassment here."

Percy gasps, scandalized. "Annabeth, that's exploitation!"

She shrugs again. "Do you want to get your hand out of there or not?"

He decides he does, and goes in with the big guns. "A book!" Percy says, "Any book you want."

"That's like ten dollars." Annabeth points out. "Is that honestly the price of your cool guy rep Percy?"

Percy is partly shocked because Annabeth thinks he's cool (sure he's relatively popular, but Annabeth is a whole different league of perfection) and partly confused because she's blackmailing him and he can't understand why.

"Name your price." Percy sighs, giving up because he really can't seem to understand the enigma that is Annabeth Chase.

She pretends to think about it. "Lunch." She smiles, and he's more than a little confused because lunch in the cafeteria only costs about $3.

Then when she adds in, "Or dinner. Whichever one you prefer really. This weekend." he understands.

Oh. _Oh._

Unable to form a coherent sentence, Percy nods, a blush forming on his cheeks.

Wordlessly, Annabeth slides in a dollar note to the cash dispenser and immediately the mechanism frees Percy's hand. Annabeth collects the two bottles that have come out with one hand, and holds out her other hand to pull Percy up. Still blushing, he accepts, and after he has stood up, Annabeth passes him one of the two bottles.

"You know," she smiles, "I heard a rumour that Jason can drink an entire bottle in four seconds."

Percy raises his eyebrows. "Really?" He begins to smile.

"Mmm."Annabeth hums happily, shouldering her bag and starting to turn away from him.

As she walks away, she pauses and faces him again. "When I said that it didn't really make a difference, I meant that it didn't really make a difference to my feelings." She tells him, "They would have stayed the same regardless."

And as she turns away again, he swears he can see the beginnings of light pink blush blossoming on her face too.

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**I'm planning on adding a short epilogue (courtesy of meg's headcanons) :)**

**I hope you liked it! And Happy Valentine's day!**


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